Rockhaven
In which the Uncle seems reluctant to let his guests depart.
I said it, didn’t I? Things getting Interesting.
I was thinking just a few days ago that we hadn’t seen a shibjela yet, and wondering if it was going to turn out that its association with Jela was just a groundless folklore. I guess I can consider that question well and truly settled.
I don’t know what a shibjela is. Is it the energy whip? Is it the slim glass blade that Cantra wields?
The Shibjela is an Yxtrang weapon that appears in Plan B; the name is translated as “Jela’s necklace” or “Jela’s noose” (though the Yxtrang in question is wearing his disguised as part of his belt).
I was referring to the whip, though on checking Plan B to make sure I had the name right, I find that it’s not as similar to a Shibjela as I thought I remembered.
Good on you for remembering the whip; I didn’t.
Is the glass knife that Cantra has a Clutch knife? (Probably not. I don’t think the Clutch had had much trade with humans with knives before Val Con yos’ Phelium??)
Yes, if I recall correctly, when Val Con made the acquaintance of the Clutch they had only made one or two early attempts at trading with humans, which had not yet resulted in any knives actually changing hands.
Also, I think a glass knife is probably not the same thing as a crystal knife, in composition or manufacture. (Or design philosophy. The Turtles start with a crystal and say “This could become a good knife”; I suspect that the aelantaza start with a knife and say “If this were made out of glass it would be invisible to several scans that would pick up a knife made out of metal or ceramic.”)
That said, it’s an interesting point of connection between Grandma Cantra and her descendant, isn’t it?
Haha! Yes, things got nicely interesting, including the constant conflict Cantra was feeling about leaving Jela with Uncle.
Again…go Tree! (I wish Tree had a short name, like Laar in Dragon Tide).
I had also wondered, when I read Plan B, if the shibjela Nelirikk carries is the same device as Jela’s whip, but Jela’s whip is ceramic, and the shibjela is wire, and does function like a whip, but like a wire for strangling or tying up someone. Is that right? I am still not clear on these two weapons.
Oops. Wish I could edit or preview my comments. I meant to say the wire does NOT function like a whip.
Yes, Nelirikk’s shibjela is wire, and more like a garotte or a tangling wire than a whip, and while it has a sharp edge it’s only sharp enough to embed itself in a limb, not to take a limb clean off.
That said, given the extra information in Chapter Thirty, it does seem like they’re related. Maybe the shibjela was the result of somebody who had heard stories about Jela’s weapon trying to re-invent it, and the details had changed in the telling or they didn’t have the technology to do it exactly the same.
Yes, Paul. That scenario might explain things.
I wonder that the Uncle would be so wasteful of his own resources. Cantra and Jela are both highly competent individuals, which the Uncle surely already knows – why else would he want either of them? To fling numbers of his own people into an attack on them seems guaranteed to bring about injuries and deaths to a number of his own people, and risk the same for Jela and Cantra, which would make the entire exercise futile. Why not gas them in a hallway? This was just stupid.
Late to the party (from one even later): Why not gas them in a hallway? This was just stupid.
Does the stupidity of it lend credence to the claims Uncle makes in his message to the ship later?
@Maybe the shibjela was the result of somebody who had heard stories about Jela’s weapon trying to re-invent it, and the details had changed in the telling or they didn’t have the technology to do it exactly the same.
I seem to remember that some or maybe all of the ceramic technology was lost. The teacup Bechimo found might have been of a similar material as Jela’s whip – but in the new universe this material is unknown.
I can’t know what the authors intended, but in re-rereading, I have become persuaded that the Uncle actually had not intended for violence to break out. Deception and persuasion and possibly ensnaring the unsuspecting is more his line of attack, and his people probably just over-reacted to Jela’s and Cantra’s unexpected tactics in extricating themselves.